Series MS-2762 - R.M. Patterson papers

Correspondence, diaries, notebooks, etc. of R.M. Patterson, noted British Columbia wilderness traveller and author. The collection includes diaries of his travels on the South Nahanni, Dease, and Finlay Rivers, correspondence with northerners and people interested in the north, "fan" mail, and correspondence with publishers. It also includes letters written by Patterson about his life homesteading in the Alberta Peace River district, photocopies of correspondence and documents re his army service in the First World War, and air photos of the Nahanni River. Maps transferred to the Map Collection; microfilm copies of photo albums in Visual Records accession 198909-1. Some of the correspondence was borrowed from Mr. Patterson in 1978 and microfilmed in MS- 0957. Raymond Murray Patterson was born in County Durham, England, on May 13, 1898. He was educated at Rossall School, and in 1917 went directly from school into the British army. He served as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery, was captured in the spring of 1918, and spent the remainder of the war in a Prisoner-of-War camp in Silesia. After the war, he attended Oxford University and then joined the Bank of England as a cadet. In 1924, Mr. Patterson came to Canada. After working briefly on a dairy farm in the Fraser Valley, he homesteaded in the Battle River area of the Peace River District of Alberta. In the summer of 1927, he made the first of the northern journeys which formed the subject of much of his later writings. Travelling by way of Fort Simpson, he spent the summer on the South Nahanni River, returning south by way of a difficult journey via the Fort Nelson River and Fort St. John. He returned to the South Nahanni in the spring of 1928 and remained there with his partner, Gordon Matthews, until the spring of 1929. Mr. Patterson returned to England to be married in 1929. Until 1946, he and his wife and family lived in Alberta, first sheep ranching in the Bow River Valley, and then running the Buffalo Head Ranch in the Highwood River Valley in the Alberta foothills. The Pattersons moved to Vancouver Island in 1946, living first near Sidney and after 1962, in Victoria. R.M. Patterson died in Victoria in 1984. In the late 1940s, Mr. Patterson made two more northern trips, again largely by canoe. In 1948, he travelled from Wrangell up the Stikine River to Telegraph Creek and then down the Dease to Lower Post. In 1949, he went from Prince George via the Crooked River to Finlay Forks and then up the Finlay River. Along with his experiences on the South Nahanni, these trips formed the basis for three of his books. In the 1940s, R.M. Patterson began to publish articles in magazines such as The Beaver and Blackwoods based on his experiences as homesteader and his northern travels. In 1954, The Dangerous River, the first of his five books, was published. It was based on his experiences on the South Nahanni River, 1927-1929. This was followed by The Buffalo Head, 1961, which was partly about his early life in England but mainly about his life in the Alberta foothills. Far Pastures, published in 1963, consisted of articles previously published in magazines with additional chapters on homesteading and later travels in the north. In Trail to the Interior, 1966, and Finlay's River, 1968, R.M. Patterson used his journeys on the Stikine and Dease in 1948 and on the Finlay in 1949 as a framework to write about the history of those rivers. In addition to his own books, R.M. Patterson wrote the introduction to the Hudson's Bay Record Society's edition of the Journals of Samuel Black, published in 1955. The records consist largely of correspondence, diaries, and notebooks. They also include book reviews by R.M. Patterson, correspondence and accounts with publishers and book dealers, some accounts re orders made for the Buffalo Head Ranch, and copies of selected documents and correspondence relating to Patterson's army service. The correspondence is divided into four series: correspondence inward, general correspondence inward, fan mail, and correspondence outward. Series 1, correspondence inward, consists of letters from frequent correspondents, filed by the writer's name. Many of these people are mentioned in Patterson's books. The letters from Gordon Matthews are almost all written from Aklavik and describe life there, and the visit of the Governor General, Lord Tweedsmuir, in 1937. Series 2, general correspondence inward, consists of chronologically arranged letters from people who only wrote one or two letters. The letters in this series cover a variety of subjects. They tend to emphasize wilderness canoe travel, the history of the South Nahanni and Finlay Rivers, and hunting and fishing. Many are from readers and friends writing to Patterson for advice about canoes, camping equipment and travel routes, or to reminisce about early days in the North. Series 3, fan mail, consists of letters of appreciation from readers, thank-you notes, and letters of congratulations on the publication of his various books. Series 4, correspondence outward, consists primarily of letters written from the 1920s to the 1940s to his mother, Lady Scott, and to his boyhood friend, Edwin "George" Fenwick. Selected military papers were photocopied and returned to the donor. Photograph albums were microfilmed and returned. Microfilm copies are in Visual Records accession 198908-1. Forty-seven photographs ca. 1937-1983 which include views of the Ross River, Nahanni River, Peace River, Hamilton Inlet, Buffalo Head, and Europe were also transferred to accession 198908-1. Maps were transferred to the Maps, accession 89-038. Included is a map of Flat River (Too Naga) N.W.T., made by Patterson in August to September 1928, and an accompanying booklet, The Flat River Country: North West Territories of Canada (London: R.M. Patterson, 1933). A second copy of this booklet has been transferred to the BC Archives Library. Ninety of the letters in this collection were borrowed for microfilming in 1978 and are described as MS-0957 [A00953(1)]. The originals are interfiled in Series 1 correspondence inward of MS-2762. His papers were presented to the Archives by his wife, Marigold, in 1989. Source: MS Finding Aids Presented by Mrs. R.M. Patterson, Victoria, 1989. Finding aid.